Before we relax social distancing, we need a better picture of how many people are really infected with COVID-19. Otherwise, the rate “drop” states have been told should signal them to reopen isn’t real, Jennifer Pinto-Martin, PhD, MPH, told ABC News. 

M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, and others at Penn Medicine are giving us a heartfelt view from the front lines of COVID-19.

Across the United States, black Americans are dying from COVID-19 at disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts. If the data from other large cities hold true in Philadelphia — where 41 percent of residents are African American — the emerging recognition of disparities demands our immediate attention, write Karen Glanz, PhD, MPH, and Carmen E. Guerra, MD, MSCE.

It is possible for recovered patients to transmit COVID-19 through contact, like touching a surface, cautions Ebbing Lautenbach, MD, MPH, MSCE. “The same things that you were doing before — meticulous hand hygiene, decontamination of environmental surfaces, not shaking hands, sneezing into your elbow — those are all good pieces of advice.”

The path to vaccines and treatments during epidemics such as COVID-19: Hoping to avoid mistakes made during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Susan Ellenberg, PhD, and coauthors of the WHO’s R&D Blueprint group call for a new clinical trials “core protocol.”

We believe that as many as one million Americans who fall victiem to COVID-19 will need the support of ventilators — five times the number we have, writes critical care physician Meghan Brooks Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, FCCM. However, there are at least three steps we can take to give everyone the best chance.

President Trump has argued for widespread use of some promising drugs for COVID-19: “What have you got to lose?” Patients treated with drugs that haven’t been adequately studied have plenty to lose, writes Susan Ellenberg, PhD, in Slate.

On WITF public radio, Susan Ellenberg, PhD, commented about the pressure on current clinical trials for COVID-19 therapeutics. “It’s not so different from the way it was years ago, when I was at the NIH during the early days of the AIDS epidemic,” she says.Hear the segment starting at minute 23:50.

Michael Levy, PhD, doesn’t think we can maintain our initial social distancing standards for the duration of the COVID-19 epidemic, he told the Associated Press. “The analogy of pumping car brakes on an icy road is what we should be thinking about.”

Speaking with The Atlantic, Karen Glanz, PhD, MPH, advised on exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic: It's okay to go for a walk outside, but maintain safe social distance from people you encounter.